The Reformed All Progressive Congress (R-APC) has accused President Muhammadu Buhari and some leaders of the ruling party of taking leadership of the APC illegally.

Chairman of R-APC, Mr Buba Galadima, who made the allegation on Thursday during his appearance on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily, also faulted the outcome of the APC national convention which held in June.

He alleged that the President, as well as the APC National Chairman Adams Oshiomhole and the party’s national leader Bola Tinubu, are ‘usurpers’, saying “The president cannot go against the law.”

“We are the mainstream APC,” Galadima said of his group, adding, “We are claiming that we are the authentic leaders of the party and not usurpers who have just come in and use their position and influence to get themselves announced as leaders.”

The factional chairman spoke barely one day after the R-APC, which comprises of aggrieved APC supporters and members of the National Assembly, announced their breakaway from the party in Abuja.

“You cannot build something on nothing; there were infractions right from the ward congresses leading to the convention. Therefore, the processes were faulty, the processes were non-event. Therefore, the executives produced through these processes cannot stand legal interpretation. We are members of the APC,” he insisted.

Galadima argued that none of the three leaders was a signatory to the formation of the party, claiming that APC was nationally accepted because of the integrity of people like him.

He maintained that the party’s constitution was violated during the convention, alleging that members were stopped from buying forms to contest the election into various leadership positions of the party.

“People were stopped from accessing forms, people were stopped from attending venues that will generate delegates to the national convention,” the factional chairman said, noting that those people might have opposed the voice vote which elected Oshiomhole as the APC national chairman.

Azuatalam said while it was usual to have disagreements after elections just like that of the APC convention, “The national convention of the party affirmed every position from all the states.”

He, however, distanced the APC from the R-APC, saying the aggrieved members in the faction have a choice of either joining other registered parties or form a new one.

The BoT member said, “The fact that the national convention produced a delegate from all the states means that the national convention has affirmed all elected people from the ward, to the local government, and to the state and these were delegates that came for the national convention.”

“What this means is that there is, at the moment, no faction in any state of the party in Nigeria; there are disagreement and these people who disagreed have gone to court, and it is subject to the court to determine in their favour or otherwise,” he added.